With two minutes and 29 seconds left in the NBA Cup Finals between the Knicks and the Spurs, Jalen Brunson turned the ball over while being guarded full court by Dylan Harper. Knicks head coach Mike Brown turned to the bench and yelled for backup point guard Tyler Kolek to re-enter the game for Jordan Clarkson. It may have seemed like a small substitution in a game full of them, but that moment was another step in what has been a monumental shift in the Knicks’ offensive philosophy in the 2025-26 season.
Last season, this Knicks offense aggressively leaned on Jalen Brunson. Not in the way that he was an All-Star point guard with an uncanny ability to get to the rim, but in the way “Castaway” leaned on Tom Hanks. At times, it felt like the offense had no direction if Brunson wasn’t bringing the ball up and trying to break his man down off the dribble.
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Last year, Brunson had a 17.3% isolation rate and held the ball for 8.6 seconds per possession. Both of those marks were top 15 in the league for players who appeared in more than 20 games. Additionally, the Knicks used Brunson as a pick-and-roll ball handler 39.4% of the time, which was 9th among players who appeared in over 30 games. He rarely ever got spot-up jump shot opportunities (10.1% of all his shots) and had just under two catch-and-shoot opportunities per game.
Almost everything he did on offense began with the ball in his hands, and new Knicks head coach Mike Brown had a different vision that he believed would help the team make a deep run in the playoffs. Not only did he push to install an offense that would play faster and with more passing, but he wanted an offense that featured Brunson at point guard less often.
While that may seem counterintuitive, it’s something the veteran head coach learned while he was coaching Stephen Curry as an assistant for the Golden State Warriors for six years.
“I’ve talked to a couple of point guards around the league throughout the course of years, who I have a lot of respect for, especially the ball-dominant ones,” said Brown before a November game against the Magic. “Being around [Steph] for six years, you learn a lot. Nobody can be like Steph. He’s an amazing player, amazing person too. But what makes him so unique is his ability to play on the ball and off the ball, so in a seven-game playoff series, teams have a hard time adjusting to him because it’s hard to take away everything. I always felt, if I ever had a team, I don’t care what my point guard’s like, I’m going to try to get him off the ball so that he’s comfortable with it during the regular season and then, come playoff time, teams can’t sit on ‘Okay, he’s dominating the ball, so let’s blitz him. Let’s get the ball out of his hands.’ Now you’ve got to try to defend him in a lot of different ways.”
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That’s exactly what we saw happen to the Knicks in the playoffs last year. Opponents would blitz Brunson as soon as he crossed half-court to try and either trap him or force him to give him up the ball. Even if Brunson was able to get a pass off, it almost always led to a disjointed series for the Knicks. By moving Brunson off the ball, Coach Brown has allowed his All-Star to not have to work so hard for stretches and also freed him up to get cleaner looks through off-ball screens and cuts.
Last year, Brunson had a 28.9% usage rate, and his usage rate this year is up to 30.6%, so it’s not just about how much he’s touching the ball but about how. Two of the bigger changes are in how often Brunson is operating in isolation and how long he tends to hold the ball on each possession.This season, Brunson’s time with the ball in his hands dropped from 8.6 seconds per possession to 7.8, and his isolation rate dipped from 17.3% to 13.8%.
Brunson isn’t dominating the ball as much and is operating within the flow of the offense at large. Last year, hemade 58.1 passes per game and received 72.2 passes per game. This year, he makes 63.8 passes per game and receives 76.3 passes per game. He’s being used less often in the pick and roll and is also playing at a faster pace, up to 4.99 mph on average from 4.65 last year.
Those numbers may not seem drastically different to you, but they’re a clear indication that the way Brunson is getting his looks and his points is shifting.
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Last season, he had just a 10.1% spot-up rate, but that’s up to 15.4% this season. Last year, he had just 1.9 catch-and-shoot opportunities per game, all on three-pointers. This year, he’s up to 3.2 catch-and-shoot field goals per game, almost all three-pointers as well, with a 67.6% effective field goal rate. He’s also driving slightly less often, down from 17.8 drives per game to 16 drives per game, and he’s getting 1.5 corner threes per game, up from 0.9 last year, and shooting those at a 50% clip.
Essentially, Brunson being off the ball more often means that he’s getting better looks through off-ball movement and taking higher efficiency shots more often per game. All of that is great for the Knicks, and is also part of the reason that Brunson is averaging a career-high 28.8 points per game.
“Not only that,” added Coach Brown, “but it’s going to be hard to just get up and deny him and bully him because you’re just knowing that he’s going back to get the ball every time. If the defense wants to play this way, go to the corner. The ball will find you if we’re moving in space in the right way… that’s what I’m trying to do with Jalen.”
That’s also the exact idea that Jalen himself expressed after an early-season game when he was asked about playing off the ball more this year: “It was kind of the same, a little bit different. At the end of the day, we’re going to get into actions no matter who has it, and then we’re going to be aggressive. So it’s all about finding the right thing to do at the right time, so regardless of who’s bringing it up, everyone’s still a threat to be aggressive.”
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That’s what the Tyler Kolek substitution was all about. Not only was Kolek playing really well in extended minutes, but he’s a steady ball handler and a reliable passer in a way that Jordan Clarkson is not. His being in the game allowed the Knicks to put Brunson off the ball, which forced the Spurs’ defense to be less focused on the point of attack and more focused on denying passes to Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns on off-ball actions. As a result, on the first play after Kolek came into the game, he was able to get past his man and drive into the paint, where he drew help defenders and whipped a pass along the baseline to OG Anunoby for a wide-open three-pointer.
All of that may feel minor. The statistical differences in Brunson’s usage between last season and this season may feel minimal, but the results are of crucial importance for the Knicks. Not only are they making things easier for the best player, but they are giving their offense another dimension. As we saw during the NBA Cup, that versatility will make them tougher to defend against the best teams in the league. In those crucial win-or-go-home situations, every additional coaching wrinkle is another potential path to victory. So, in taking the ball from their point guard, they may be creating an avenue to hand him a trophy instead.